KEY POINTS:
WELLINGTON - Talks are still under way to abolish the youth minimum wage rate before a crucial vote on the issue in Parliament this week, Green MP Sue Bradford said yesterday.
The Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Bill was watered down by a select committee and the only chance to change it again will come up on Wednesday night.
Ms Bradford's bill had originally proposed dumping the youth rate altogether and just having one rate for all workers aged over 16.
However, Labour, New Zealand First and United Future supported a compromise that saw it renamed the Minimum Wage (New Entrants) Amendment Bill and amended to set up a new entrants minimum rate for 16- and 17-year-olds.
It would mean a youth rate would remain for those under 18 for the first 200 hours of employment, which can be accumulated across different employers.
It would be set at 80 per cent of the adult minimum wage but would not apply to youths employed as supervisors.
Ms Bradford said the Greens were unhappy with the idea but would not shoot the bill down as it still was an improvement on the status quo.
"It is better than nothing [but] we are pretty sad about it and I am still hoping we can improve the bill and get a little movement to make it better," Ms Bradford said.
The argument that young people should be paid less while they acclimatised to a workplace was still discriminatory because older workers needed to acclimatise as well, she said.
"Also, many 16-year-olds have already been in the workplace in a part-time job before they turn that age."
Many aged 16 would take a long time to reach the 200-hour mark because they were working part-time.
The unions have been putting pressure on Labour to reinstate the original bill and Ms Bradford said about 200 young workers marched in Auckland on Saturday to back that happening.
National and Act opposed the bill, while the Maori Party supported the original version.
The minimum adult rate is $11.25 an hour, with the youth rate set at $9 an hour.
YOUTH RATES
* Greens want to abolish the minimum youth pay rate, at present $9 an hour.
* Labour, New Zealand First and United Future favour a new entrants minimum rate for 16- and 17-year-olds, with the youth rate remaining for those under 18 for the first 200 hours of employment.
- NZPA
